“Pussy Riot,” the controversial Russian punk rock group (some say it’s instead a performance art group), got prison time for “hooliganism” at a Moscow cathedral.
I note that in Russian newspaper accounts in Cyrillic, “Pussy Riot” is rendered in English and in Roman script.
My question is:
Do any Russian speakers know why?
1.) Perhaps the name “Pussy Riot” was always in English, never in Russian (either to evade Russian law, as a stylistic creation, or to appeal to a larger world audience).
2.) Perhaps the name is normally rendered in the Russian equivalent, but since in Russia you can be fined for using “mat words” (“mother” words) or their derivatives in a public place (or so I’ve read), Russian media and commentators render the term into English to sanitize it for Russian law.
If the name is ordinarily rendered into a Russian equivalent, I’d like to know what that is (something involving “pyozd or pyezda” and “boont,” I suspect).
Can anyone shed light on this and explain why it’s rendered in English and Roman script in Russian media? Is it a “mat word” issue at all in Russia?
I read an in-depth discussion of this recently on the excellent Language Log blog. Short answer: the band uses Latin script, as is apparently common with lots of music groups.
Consider how many bands (and other entertainers) from English speaking countries like to throw in non-English words. English is subject to exactly the same treatment in non-English speaking countries.
Post on Language Log on this topic. Apparently Pussy Riot is the actual name of the band, and it is variously rendered in Russian media/documents (a) in the original English, (b) as a phonetic trancription, (c) in a number of attempts at translation, either literal or trying to preserve the double entendre.
There is is a very strong profane phrase that uses “мать” (the formal world for “mother”) in the accusative case and is often abbreviated to just the use of “your mother” in the accusative (the same way the English phrase “up yours” is an abbreviation for a longer profane phrase). My Russian professor wouldn’t let us use the words for “your mother” in the accusative in class, even when the context wasn’t profane – we had to use the more casual “your mom” (твою маму / tvayu mamu).
This is indeed true, and is a very good way to start a fight with a Russian (more so than the corresponding English version); however, the Russian word for foul language is мат - note the absence of the “soft” sign. An entirely different word (and audibly different pronunciation) from мать. ArmenE is on track with this one.
When I was in Russia back in 1995-96, I encountered many mainstream publications that used some of the relatively less offensive words in articles - not gratuitously, except for that one humor magazine - so I don’t think there are any laws against them appearing in print. Things might have changed. I doubt it, however.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear – I knew there is a differences between мат and мать but just wanted to point out that мать is sometimes used in profane ways, too. My “is” was not meant to be confrontational.
Don’t know about Russian newspapers but in Georgia, USA, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution refuses to render the name Pussy Riot at all. They simply refer to the “female Russian rock group that was sentenced”.
I’ve never seen the language log blog site referenced; I skimmed and copied the story on the subject matter at hand to read at length later. I also checked out the site on the misuse of English by non-native speakers (tv tropes): interesting.
I know “mother,” pronounced roughly as “mat,” comes with a soft sign on the end of it in Cyrillic; I just don’t know how to find a Cryrillic alphabet online so I took the shortcut. Interesting discussion on this in your comments.
My understanding about “mother words” (from a special section of my Russian-English/English-Russian dictionary) was that they represent five words from which most vulgar expressions derive (hence “mother” words?), and I’ve read in another article “someplace” that after WW II, the language of returning soldiers was so creatively nasty based on those words that the state took action to do something about it.
A comment online at “Russian military Photos (updated regularly)” was that you could be cited and fined for use of a “mat” word in public. The comment came from a Russian living in Russia at the time.
Now I’m curious enough now to research this a bit more.
“Gallows Fodder:”
MY Russian teacher, who spent time in the Gulag after WW II, encouraged us with great glee in the use of “mat” words, and took guffawing delight when one of us mispronounced a word in such a way that it was a vulgarity.
“That means BUTTHOLE!” he told a stumbling student one day, after he’d stopped laughing. He also told us we needed to be part of a group and steal food in order to survive in the Gulag, and that it was necessary to kill any “stukach,” which he translated as “stool pigeon” and which means “door knocker” more literally, I think. We seem to have had very different Russian professors.
Having belatedly done my homework, it’s now clear that “mat” is NOT the same word as “мать” meaning “mother” as several of you pointed out. So much for due diligence prior to posting. Dobby must iron his hands.
Here is what my Oxford pocket Russian Dictionary (2006) says regarding the illegality of “mat” words:
“In informal situations, these taboo words [four of them, not five], are very common among people with a low social status, whereas cultured, well-educated, and well-brought-up people (almost) never use them. Traditionally, it is considered unacceptable to utter any of the four words of mat in front of women or children, and using mat in public is a violation of the law. Violators are liable to a fine (of 10 to 20 British pounds approximately, in 2005) or, in exceptional cases, they can even be prosecuted.”
All of you addressed the fact that the name “Pussy Riot” was ORIGINALLY rendered in English, and therefore carries the equivocal meaning for “Pussy” found in English. The discussion on Language Log blog makes it clear this ambiguity does not exist as clearly in any Russian equivalent, and gives many examples of how this has been dealt with by Russian media.
